Floor treating machine head assembly



July 7, 1970 R, o, ZEMKE ETAL 3,518,709

FLOOR TREATING MACHINE HEAD ASSEMBLY Filed March 18, 1968 ILM fl L di 5)@ma ,z 4f da M United States Patent O FLOOR TREATIN G MACHINE HEADASSEMBLY Ronald 0. Zemke, St. Paul, and Robert H. Kleemeier,

Arden Hills, Minn., assignors to Minnesota Mining and ManufacturingCompany, St. Paul, Minn.

Filed Mar. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 713,639 Int. Cl. A471 11/164 U.S. Cl. --45 Claims ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE A floor-treating machine headassembly for shampooing carpeting and for treating hard-surfaced floorscomprises a drive block and a brush holder subassembly releasablyattached thereto. The brush holder subassembly is readily removed toexpose a holder which releasably engages fibrous pads for scrubbing orpolishing hard-surface floors.

BACKGROUND `OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to floor treatingmachines and especially to rotary heads therefor. More particularly, itrelates to a simple compact head assem'bly which may be used either toshampoo carpeting or to drive fibrous pads to scrub, wax, or polish ahard surface oor.

A typical housewife must maintain a Wide variety of floor surfaces,e.g., linoleum, asphalt tile, wood, and carpeting, each of whichrequires a specific type of care. The housewifes burden has Ibeensomewhat lessened by the commercial availability of lightweight twinhead floor cleaning machines and carpet shampooing machines, theoppositely rotating heads of which allow her to have greater controlover the machine for easier handling in small corner areas. Although noone machine employs a single treating head which is adapted for bothcarpet shampooing and floor cleaning, some machines are provided withinterchangeable heads. Such is superficially appealing, but thepractical effect of this arrangement is to complicate their use andincrease the probability of losing one head or the other.

The typical prior art treating head has consisted of a circular brushblock having tufts of long 'bristles extending from one face in anannular array, the bristles for treating hard-surface floors generallybeing stiffer than those for shampooing carpets. The driving motor of amachine with these treating heads is necessarily positioned well abovethe floor, limiting the ability of the machine to go readily under lowfurniture, and sometimes causing it to be unstable and difficult for thehousewife to use and control. Further, most of these prior art treatingheads are not able to grip steel wool pads or the newly popular lowdensity fibrous abrasive pads for treating hard-surface floors.

SUMMARY Our invention provides a floor-treating machine head assemblywhich can be used both to shampoo carpeting, and to drive fibrous padsto scrub, wax, or polish hard surface floors, eliminating the need foreither separate machines or separate treating heads to perform thesediverse tasks. This novel head assembly also gives floortreatingmachines a low contour and allows them to go readily under furniture.The assembly is also inexpensive and readily attached to presentlyavailable floor-treating machines.

In accordance with our invention, we provide a floor treating machinehead assembly which may be used in assembled condition for shampooingcarpets and, with the carpet cleaning subassembly removed, for drivingfibrous floor-treating pads to treat hard-surface floors. Manual re- ICCmoval of the carpet cleaning subassembly exposes a holder for grippingfibrous oor treating pads of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasives of thetype disclosed in U.S. Pat. 2,958,593, or the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Understanding of the invention will befacilitated by referring to the accompanying drawing, in which likenumbers refer to like parts in the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a Hoor-treating machine head assemblyembodying the principles of our invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation view of the device of FIG. l, with partsbroken away;

FIG. 3 is an end elevational view of the device of FIG. l, with partsbroken away;

FIG. 4 is a view of the lower surface of the upper subassembly of ourfioor-treating machine head assembly; and

FIG. 4 is a view of thel ower surface of the upper subassembly of thefloor-treating machine head assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The embodiment shown anddescribed is that preferred for use with small lightweight twin-headfloor-treating machines, the noncircular conformation permitting thepath traversed by the peripheries of the head assemblies to overlap andeliminate any parting lines.

In the drawing, floor-treating machine head assembly 10 comprises driveblock 20 and shampoo 'brush holder 40, the units being operativelyinterconnected by means of snap fastener 5l. The operation of the headassembly in total is described with reference to FIG. 1 with structuraldetails being illustrated primarily in FIGS. 2 and 3. Located on thelower surface of drive block 20, is treating pad holder 21, having twooutwardly projecting lobes 23 and circumscribed by downwardly projectingperpendicular peripheral flange 22. `On the upper surface of pad holder21 is pedestal 24, to the upper surface of which is securely affixeddrive shaft attachment 25 by means of screws 26 in threaded screw holes27. The exact nature of drive shaft attachment 2S, which serves tooperably connect head assembly 10 to the rotary drive shaft of afloor-treating machine will, of course, depend upon the specificfloor-treating machine to which head assembly 10 is to be attached.

Annular basin 28, located in the center of drive block 20, and on theupper surface of treating pad holder 21, is defined by circular sidewall29, floor 30, and the exterior periphery of pedestal 24. The exact shapeand dimensions of basin 28 are not critical, provided it is capable ofholding a small quantity of detergent and shampoo solutions as dispensedfrom the tank which is commonly mounted on floor-treating machines.Located in the floor 30 of basin 28 and within the perimeter ofperipheral flange 22 are holes 31 through which detergent or shampoosolution is gradually dispensed to the surface to be treated. Centrallylocated in floor 30 of basin 28 and within the confines of peripheralflange 22 is snap fastener receptacle 32 for operatively releasablyattaching brush holder `40.

Shampoo brush holder `40 comprises arched frame 41 dened by structuralrib 42 and surface 43. Under the weight of a floor-surfacing machine,the center portion of the arch is forced downward, thereby presenting asubstantially fiat lower face and insuring more uniform contact with thefloor surface. Frame 41 is preferably of the same general dimensions asdrive block 20, having two outwardly extending lobes `44.

Frame 41 has tubs 45 attached on each side thereof at joints 46. Thesetubs 45 are defined by peripheral flange 47 which extends above rib 42to interlock with peripheral flange 22 and form a cooperativecomplementary interlocking means which keeps brush holder 40 fromrotating with respect to drive block 20 during use. Extending downwardlyfrom frame 41 at the ends thereof is wall 48, which denes an area inwhich are located an array of perpendicularly disposed verticallyoriented fibers 49 adapted to shampoo carpeting. Fibers 49 areperpendicularly anchored in and held in place by resin 33. It has beenfound that 15 mil X-shaped polyethylene fibers, with about 1/2 inchexposed, are extremely suitable. Located within the confines ofstructural rib 42 are holes 50 which preferably match and cooperate withholes 31 to deliver shampoo suds from annular basin 28 to the carpetsurface. Centrally located at the axis of frame 41 is threaded snapfastener stud 51 which is complementary with snap fastener receptacle32, providing a convenient means of attaching brush holder 40 to driveblock 20 to form treating head assembly 10. For convenience in use, snapfastener 51 should be readily connectable and disconnectable by ahousewife while still holding the head assembly securely together duringuse.

As described, head assembly is readily attachable to a oor-treatingmachine for efficient carpet shampooing. When one desires to scrub, wax,or polish hard-surface floors, shampoo brush holder 40 is readilysnapped loose from drive block 20 to expose treating pad holder 21.Located within the perimeter of peripheral flange 22 is an array ofperpendicularly disposed headed fibers 34, anchored and held in place byresin 33, adapted to engage and khold fibrous treating pads of steelwool, lofty nonwoven abrasive products, or the like. The fibers arepreferably arranged such that treating pads of relatively small surfacearea can be used to produce high surface contact pressure for efficienttreating.

Surveys have indicated that machine shampooing of carpeting is becomingmore prevalent than machine treating of hard surface floors. Ideallythen, a floor-treating machine head assembly should be primarily suitedfor carpet shampooing and readily convertible for cleaning of hardsurface floors as we have described. It should be noted that the reverseis entirely satisfactory; i.e., the carpet cleaning fibers 49 can belocated on drive block 20 and the fibers 34 for engaging and holdingfibrous floortreating pads can be located on holder 40.

What we claim is:

1. A floor treating machine head assembly, having special utility foruse in treating both carpeting and hardsurface fioors, said headassembly comprising in combination:

a drive block having on its upper surface a means for attachment to thedrive shaft of a tioor treating machine and on its lower surface anarray of perpendicularly disposed fibers,

a holder comprising a frame positioned below and operatively releasablyattached to said drive block, an array of perpendicularly disposedfibers being fixed on the lower surface of said holder,

cooperative complementary fastener means on said drive block and saidholder for connecting and disconnecting said drive block and holder,

cooperative complementary rotation-preventing means on said drive blockand holder to prevent relative rotation therebetween when said assemblyis in use,

one of said fiber arrays being adapted to shampoo carpeting and theother of said fiber arrays'being adapted to engage and hold fibrousfloor treating pads of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasive products, orthe like, whereby said head assembly may be used in assembled conditionfor treating one type of floor covering and, with the holder removed,for treating, another type of floor covering.

2. A floor treating machine head assembly, having special utility foruse in cleaning both carpeting and hard surface floors, said headassembly comprising in combination:

a drive block having on its upper surface a means for attachment to thedrive shaft of a floor-treating machine and on its lower surface anarray of perpendicularly disposed fiber means adapted to engage and holda fibrous oor treating pad of steel wool, lofty nonwoven abrasiveproducts or the like, to facilitate the treatment of hard-surfacefloors,

a carpet cleaning brush holder positioned below and operativelyreleasably attached to said drive block, said holder having on the lowersurface thereof an array of perpendicularly disposed fibers adapted tocarpet shampooing,

cooperative complementary fastener means on said drive block and brushholder for connecting and disconnecting said drive block and brushholder,

cooperative complementary means on said drive block and brush holder toprevent relative rotation therebetween when said assembly is in use,

whereby said head assembly may be used in assembled condition forshampooing carpets and, with the carpet cleaning brush holder removed,for driving fibrous floor treating pads to treat hard-surface floors.

3. The floor-treating head assembly of claim 2, further characterized byhaving a plurality of horizontally extending lobes, whereby a pluralityof treating head assemblies can be rotated in overlapping configurationto eliminate parting lines and consequently eliminate streaks on treatedoors.

4. The Hoor-treating head assembly of claim 3 wherein the last namedmeans comprises a downwardly extending peripheral flange on the driveblock and an upwardly extending peripheral ange on the brush holder,said flanges being cooperatively complementary and interlocking toprevent relative rotation therebetween when said assembly is in use forcleaning and shampooing carpeting.

5. The floor-treating head assembly of claim 4, further characterized byhaving an annular basin on the upper surface of said drive block, saidbasin having at least one hole in the floor thereof and being capable ofholding detergent and shampoo solutions and delivering same to thetreated surface for effective treating of floor surfaces.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,933,846 11/1933 Finnell 15-49 X2,672,634 3/1954 Burnham 15-28 FOREIGN PATENTS 237,159 9/ 1945Switzerland.

EDWARD L. ROBERTS, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICECERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3.518,709 Dated my 7. 19701nvencor(s) Ronagtd O, Zemke and Robert H. Kleemeier It is certifiedthat error appears in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 2, lines 19-20 reading "FIG. 4 1s a view of thel ower surface ofthe upper subassembly of the floor-treating machine head assembly"should read FIG. 5 1s a view o1' the upper surface or the lowereubassembly of the floor-treating machine head aseemb1y,'.

BELL) Attest:

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